Terror suspects shown on CCTV buying chemical

CCTV pictures of two of the alleged July 21 terror suspects buying more than 200 litres of hydrogen peroxide, allegedly to make their rucksack bombs, were played in court yesterday. The images showed Manfo Kwaku Asiedu and Muktar Said Ibrahim grinning and chatting as they purchased the hydrogen peroxide two days before the July 7 terror attacks.

Their order, made up of 13 boxes, each containing four four-litre bottles, was so large that the manufacturers had to make a new batch to meet their requirements.

At Woolwich crown court yesterday the jury in the trial of six men was played CCTV footage from Pak Cosmetics in Finsbury Park, north London, on July 5 2005.

It showed Mr Asiedu and Mr Ibrahim walking into the store to pick up their order for 50 gallons of liquid peroxide. After handing over £170 in cash, which followed an earlier deposit of £100, the men were taken by a sales assistant to collect their bottles of 18%-strength peroxide - the highest concentration available commercially - from the back of the shop

The footage then showed the men wheeling the boxes out of the store on upright trolleys. The jury was told how they then loaded them into the boot and back seat of a silver Austin Montego.

Muhammed Atif, a sales assistant at the store, said he had dealt with the men three times in the weeks before July 21 2005. He said they had told him they wanted the peroxide for washing or bleaching wood and to supply small pharmacists.

The court has heard how more than 200 peroxide bottles were later found at the conspirators' alleged bomb factory in Curtis House, New Southgate, north London.

Mr Asiedu, 33, of no fixed address, and Mr Ibrahim, 28, of Stoke Newington, north London, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, from North Kensington, west London, Yassin Omar, 26, from New Southgate, north London, Hussain Osman, 28, of south London, and Adel Yahya, 24, of High Road, Tottenham, north London, all deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions. The case continues.